


Too Late

by Talyesin



Series: Aftermath on Finite Earths [27]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 21:24:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15591027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talyesin/pseuds/Talyesin





	Too Late

Earth One  
Gotham City

 

“Seems to be an unusually high number of BAT-brats here,” the Clown Prince of Crime spat angrily, aiming his gun at the assembled children. The kids all around Helena began to cry. Some of the teachers were, too.

Helena had fought the Joker twice before, as Robin. She knew about his bad right knee and his tendency to be more likely to follow through on his homicidal urges when he held a gun in his left hand. She was relieved to see the gun was in his right hand, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous.

There were eight ways to take out his henchmen, who were rounding up the teachers and forcing them off to one side of the gym, leaving the kids cowering in one corner. She didn’t have any of her normal equipment with her, but she thought she’d seen a couple of Batarangs in Aunt Barbara’s utility purse...

“Now, I’m here to gather a little insurance,” Joker explained, suddenly calm, his mood changing so rapidly the word ‘mercurial’ seemed inadequate. He smiled. “Everyone stay calm and everything will be fine.”

“Please, Joker, sir, don’t hurt the children,” Miss Kahn begged him, and he shot her.

The gunshot was louder than anything Helena had ever heard, louder than any gunshot in any alley or bank, louder than Black Canary’s cry or the Flash’s supersonic finger-snaps. It was so loud it shattered Helena’s world.

Miss Kahn fell to her knees, her hands clutching at the bleeding hole in her chest, her fingers tangling in the faux pearl necklace she always wore. Then she pitched forward, the string of pearls breaking, clattering to the blood-stained floor. Miss Kahn’s blood was black under the orange Halloween lights the kids had hung for the dance, the pearls bright gleaming islands in the sea of dark blood. Two of the teachers tried to stop the bleeding, tried to help. Helena stood there, staring, as the old lady died.

“As I was saying,” the Joker continued as though nothing had happened, “I’m here for a little insurance.” He turned to his men. “Get, oh, say, a dozen of them? That should make Ol’ Baldy happy.” He cackled merrily, madly.

The other clowns grabbed several kids, pulling them away from the others. Helena watched helplessly as they grabbed Tim and Stephanie, Connor and Cassie, others of her classmates, and pulled them over to where the Joker was standing. Several of them began to get hysterical, screaming and crying, as they got closer to the Crown Prince of Crime. Joker ignored their shrieks as he fiddled with a gadget he pulled from inside his purple tuxedo.

“This is Wild Card to Syndicate Actual, come in Actual,” the Joker said into the gadget, chuckling to himself.

“Go ahead Joker,” came a voice Helena thought she recognized over the gadget. “You have what we need?”

“Yes indeed I do, Riddler, old buddy old pal!”

“Then stand by.”

Helena heard her father’s voice very clearly tell her, “Helena. Move.”

She would never remember that she spoke, but her friends heard, and remembered.

“Yes daddy sorry daddy.”

A flying kick to the back of one of the Joker’s goons released his hold on her classmates, and he stumbled forward. Helena’s forward momentum carried her forward as well, so she used that and jumped off of his shoulders, slamming him into the gym floor. A mid-air somersault and she was suddenly jumped by three of Joker’s goons. One she kicked in the jaw, another she elbowed in between his legs. Then she felt the all-too-familiar sensation of someone grabbing her by her cape. Honestly, she understood the use of her cape, but she’d been grabbed by her cape way too many times...

“Batgirl, eh?” Joker said, dangling her in front of him. She kicked at him angrily, feeling her feet connect with his bony sides. He laughed.

“Put her with the others,” he said, tossing her to one of his clown goons. “We’ll bring a baker’s dozen to the Big Cueball.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” came a terrifying roaring voice from somewhere in the rafters. The clown goons cried out in pain as Bat-blades suddenly sprouted from their hands, forcing them to drop their guns. Joker ducked behind several of her classmates.

Helena had never been in the field with her father before, never experienced the terror he generated. She found herself both frightened and exhilarated. Now there would be a butt-kicking to end all butt-kickings.

“Bats, ol’ buddy!” Joker called out.

“Enough, Joker!”

Catwoman swung down on her whip and with a crack wrapped it around the throat of the goon holding Helena. She’d never seen her mother so angry. Helena hoped she wasn’t mad at her. Really hoped it. A lot. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nightwing, Flamebird, and Batwoman burst into the gym.

“Can’t stay to dance, partner,” Joker said, and then a humming noise filled the gym. Helena felt a funny tingle all over her body.

“No!” she heard her father and mother both yell, then everything went bright purple.


End file.
